CITY ROOM; In City's Cemeteries, Reminders of the Titanic

By JAMES BARRON

Published: April 11, 2012

''So you've been Titanic-ing,'' Susan Olsen, the staff historian at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, said when J. Joseph Edgette walked in.

Indeed he had. Dr. Edgette is, among other things, an expert on where the ''Titanic people,'' as he calls them, were buried.

For the last hour, he had been crisscrossing Woodlawn's 313 acres, driving slowly and stopping to look at graves of passengers who died when the unsinkable ship went down 100 years ago, and survivors who were buried there later on. Of the passengers aboard the Titanic, more than 1,500 died, including more than 300 whose bodies were pulled from the water after the Cunard steamship Carpathia had picked up the survivors. (Of the bodies that were recovered, more than 115 were buried at sea. The rest were taken to Halifax, Nova Scotia, where 150 were buried in three cemeteries. The others were shipped out for burial by relatives.)

Dr. Edgette knows his way around cemeteries. He is the chairman of the cemeteries and grave markers area of the American Culture Association. He mentioned a dinner with Robert Ballard, the explorer who discovered the Titanic shipwreck in 1985.

''He explained that when those bodies went down, they stayed down,'' Dr. Edgette said. ''He said: 'You see these shoes down there? There used to be bodies in those shoes. The body parts deteriorated, and the skeletal remains decalcified. The only thing left are the shoes, and the leather is perfectly preserved.'''

Dr. Edgette said Woodlawn had 12 ''Titanic people,'' more than any cemetery in the United States. Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn has nine, he said, not counting the mayor at the time, William J. Gaynor, who coordinated the arrival of the rescue ship Carpathia, or F.A.O. Schwarz, the toy store owner. (A Schwarz teddy bear survived the Titanic, he said. It was the companion of a 6-year-old boy who had been onboard. He and his family made it into one of the lifeboats, and he marveled at the ice that floated by, saying, ''Look at the beautiful North Pole with no Santa Claus on it.'')

Some of the graves at Woodlawn mention the Titanic. ''Lost his life on the S.S. Titanic,'' reads the tombstone of Charles H. Chapman, a second-class passenger.

And some say more than nothing but less than everything. The tomb of Isidor Straus, a co-founder of Macy's and a former congressman, says: ''Lost at sea. April 15, 1912.'' The tomb, a replica of an Egyptian funeral barge, carries an inscription from the Bible (11 words from Solomon 8:7) but no mention of the Titanic.

''When the time came'' for Ida Straus to climb into the lifeboat and leave her husband behind - he was offered a seat but turned it down because there were still women and children on the doomed ship - ''she said there was no sense in parting now,'' Dr. Edgette said, noting that they had been married for more than 40 years. ''They were last seen retiring to their cabins. He was No. 96 of the 329 bodies.'' Mrs. Straus's body was never found.

The tomb for him and cenotaph for her is outside a mausoleum for their sons. Inside is a plaque commemorating the Strauses that was originally at the Macy's store on 34th Street. ''Glad it was saved,'' Dr. Edgette said. ''Glad to see it's here. It probably would have been melted down, because that's what's happening in cemeteries across America, and for pennies on the dollar.''

Dr. Edgette, an emeritus professor of education and emeritus folklorist at Widener University in Chester, Pa., said he became interested in Titanic passengers' graves after a chance conversation in the 1980s with Fitz Eugene Dixon Jr., whose grandfather George D. Widener went down on the Titanic.

Dr. Edgette said Mr. Dixon - who owned the Philadelphia 76ers when Julius Erving joined the team in the 1970s - pulled off the rings he wore. ''They were the emerald and the ruby rings that George removed from his fingers the night he put his wife in the lifeboat,'' Dr. Edgette said.

One thing led to another, he said, ''and I started looking at other cemetery sites.''

''I know Susan Olsen from way back,'' he continued. ''She said, 'I think we have some Titanic people.' I did some research and said, 'You not only have some, you're leading the pack.'''

Ms. Olsen said that for many people whose friends died on the Titanic, the grief was lasting. Across from the Straus mausoleum is a monument built by an heiress to a laxative fortune. It was finished five years after the disaster.

The sculptor Robert Aitken created two figures riding the crest of a wave. ''Kids today see that and go, 'Oh, it's Jack and Rose,''' Ms. Olsen said, referring to the characters in James Cameron's movie ''Titanic.'' ''It's so interesting that it connects with pop culture today.''

This is a more complete version of the story than the one that appeared in print.

PHOTOS: J. Joseph Edgette, an expert on where Titanic victims are buried, visiting the family mausoleum of Isidor and Ida Straus, top left, at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx. Her body was not found.; Some Titanic victims' graves at Woodlawn Cemetery, like that of Arthur Ernest Nicholson, make no mention of the disaster. (PHOTOGRAPHS BY LIBRADO ROMERO/THE NEW YORK TIMES)